Outback Adventure - Day 10

Point Stuart - Mary River - Batchelor

Today's route.

We would like to stay here for another day, but they don't have any rooms available. We cook breakfast on the barbecue by the pool, Aussie style. While we are packing up one of the fishermen meets us and insists on giving us the 1kg barramundi steak he promised me in the bar last night. It goes straight in the fridge - dinner sorted.

We drive to Mary River, 40km down the dirt road. We see lots of wallabies hopping across the road, as well as a swarm of Galahs.

A wallabie sitting in the shade.

At Mary River we join a boat cruise, guided by one of the locals I met in the bar last night. We had discussed the methods of preparation of kangaroo meat - he was a chef in a previous life. The boat trip is the same format as Kakadu: Spot crocks and birds; don't fall in. This time, we are relaxed, the sun is higher up, so the awning does its job and there is a slight breeze. Result: A much more enjoyable trip. We also see loads more birds.

A Pandanus island surrounded by waterlillies.

As the water level drops around here, water lilies start blooming. We visit several spots where there are white and pink water lilly flowers as far as the eye can see. Croc-spotting is a bit disappointing, since we only so one freshie.

Waterlillies everywhere.

A close up waterlilly.

A freshie giving us the eye.

Some of the birds we saw on the cruise:

Dollarbird
Cockatoo
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Jabiru Stork
Magpie Goose
Masked Lapwing
Pied Heron
Plumed Whistling-Duck
Radjah Shelduck
Wandering Wistling-Duck
White Bellied Sea Eagle
Whistling Kite

A Masked Lapwing.

A tree full of Cockatoos.

A White-bellied Sea-Eagle

A Pied Heron

At about noon we go ashore again. We say our goodbyes and head off. We stop at the Bark Hut Tavern for another home made lunch. It is becoming a bit spartan, since we have not restocked for a while, but its good enough.

These kind of taverns are dotted throughout the Northern Territory. It is a restaurant/convenience store one one side and a bar on the other. Supplies petrol and diesel and provides a wide verandah with roof-fans, tables and benches. The result is that travellers and fishermen stop off here to fill up on fuel, food and beer.

Eli finds a place stay outside Batchelor, next to the Lichfield National Park. To get there, we need to do 180km sealed road or 80km dirt track suitable for 4wd vehicles only. We check the condition of the dirt road with the locals - its fine to use as long as your vehicle has a high clearance. No problem for the Land Cruiser then. As it turns out, it was not much of a challenge, except for two river crossings.

At the first crossing I got worried, because a Mazda pickup was parked next to the road. I walked over to find out whats up, but they were just having a beer in the shade. They told me this crossing was no problem, but warned me against the next one. I had a look at the crossing and it looked pretty tame all the way through. This turned out to be the case.

The second crossing seemed quite daunting. About 30 yards wide and dammed up by a rock wall. There are signs up saying 'Beware of crocodiles' and 'No Swimming', but what can you do? So I walked through keeping a very close eye on any movement in the water. Maximum depth was about halfway up my thigh, flowing at about 1 meter per second. No holes or big rocks. Of course the Land Cruiser doesn't even break a sweat. The only sweating is done by me - I don't fancy being crocodile food.

Harry 1, Crocs 0

Our digs for the night is a luxury room in a campsite just outside Lichfield National Park - a portacabin with a double bed, its own en-suite, verandah, and 2 air conditioners. The proprietor provided a gas barbie and gas on the house. This was lovely: Spacious, cool and clean. Once again, we celebrate our good fortune with G&T's while looking at the birds. We move on to the pool for a swim, where one of the other campers introduces Eli to the Red Seed Tree.

For dinner we grill the fresh barramundi the Aussie way. We eat it with lemon butter and boiled potatoes with sour cream. A magnificent meal.

There are a few mosquitoes about, but nothing to worry us since we are protected by our newly purchased, the NT's own, Bushmans anti-mozzie spray. We sit outside, drinking wine, listening to the sounds of night and looking at the stars while it cools down.

Tomorrow: Swimming through Lichfield and into Darwin...

Outback Adventure - Day 9 - Ubirr and beyond

Ubirr - Point Stuart

We reach Ubirr at about 1 o'clock. It is beyond bloody hot. We slap on the Banana Boat sunscreen and pack lots of water. The Ubirr site itself is a series of rocky outcrops on otherwise flat, tropical land. There are more than 5,000 rock painting sites in Kakadu alone, but this is the most important (That they let us whitefella tourists see, anyway).

Eli in the jungle

In Ubirr itself, there are around 120 rock painting sites of which 5 are open to the public. This seemed a bit odd, until I started to understand that this is not a travelling circus. It is not put up for my benefit. It is very sacred to the local people.

Various outcrops poking up out of the floodplain.

Dating the paintings are difficult, but some of them have been dated at at least 20 000 years old. That makes them the oldest examples of human art on Earth.

Bear in mind that the aboriginal people reached Australia between 60 000 and 65 000 years ago. They are the living descendants of mankind's first successful migration out of Africa. Theirs is the oldest living culture on Earth. We are privileged indeed to see their art.

An image of a long necked turtle.

A circular path takes us past all the sites. The rock art is done in white, yellow, orange, red and black ochre. Newer paintings sometimes overwriting older ones, sometimes reinforcing the older ones. Some of the paintings have incredible details, like fishes showing the position of the backbone and internal organs - An anatomy lesson in stone! Others are painted 5 meters above ground level on the lip of the cave!

Images of Barramundi. Notice the backbone and organs.

More x-ray fish!

Several sandstone outcrops are covered in paintings and the path takes us past each. There are also explanatory plaques to explain the context of what we are seeing. In one spot, a whitefella smoking a pipe is shown.

Here's a wallaby and a whitefella with his hands in his pockets. Lots of other, fainter, images.

Here's a turtle done in white, with a human stick figure to the left. The stick figures are some of the oldest drawings.

We walk up to a lookout point, allowing us a view over the entire landscape. From here we can see wetlands, floodplains, savannah, forest and mountain. It is easy to see how someone can feel particularly close to his gods in a place like this.

Looking out over the wetlands.

Another view over the wetlands.

We drive on and reach Point Stuart 2 hours later. This is an oasis close the the north coast of Australia. The birds are singing in the trees, the wallabies grazing on the verges of the forest. Our room is basic. Very basic. 2 Basic boarding school style single beds, separated by a fridge, an airconditioner mounted on the wall. Thats it. But its clean and mozzie free. We think its heaven.

We make our way to the shaded pool where several other guests are already enjoying beers in the not so cool water. They swop fishing stories - this is barra country! Australia's world famous recreational sportfish, and pretty good to eat too.

I'm dying for a beer - all mine are warm, since I forgot to put any 'tinnies' in the fridge this morning. The bar/restaurant opens at 5 pm and we are the first there, complete with binoculars and bird book. We spot several new birds while relaxing in the shade.

The bar/restaurant is a corrugated iron annexe to the main homestead. Inside are numerous photos of guys holding massive barramundi, the odd crocodile skull, bush pig skulls and black and white photos of hunters with their feet on dead waterbuffaloes. They sell two types of beer and don't do tabs for anybody.

We both order barramundi and chips for dinner, which was excellent. The longer we sit, the more people arrive: Rough-necks, fishing types, drifters. Almost imperceptibly, the women leave. Eli is almost the last female to leave the bar.

An AFL game is set to start and the telly's volume is cranked up to compete with the music. Chairs are arranged in more of a cinema style, in order for everybody to be able to keep an eye on the game while getting on with the more important jobs of drinking and talking. I get talking with a few guys and am immediately introduced to a few others. Some of them won't give me the time of day once they find out I know nothing of barramundi fishing; with others I get on like a house on fire.

One guy and his father are on their annual barra fishing trip. They drive the 4 000km from Melbourne every year - in just 4 days, towing the boat. Another guy is the resort guide. He will be taking us on a birdwatching river cruise in the morning, but this evening we discuss the merits of kangaroo flesh and debate the best way of preparation.

This is my second experience of real Australia and real Australians. I realise again how incredibly friendly, helpful, genial and welcoming Australians are. Always ready with "G'day, howya doin?" Direct and no nonsense too, but I like it that way. These are hardy individualists, tough as nails, but equally ready with common courtesy or a pair of schooners.

Stories are told; laughs are shared; beer flows; jokes are exchanged; AFL teams are insulted. The later it gets, the better it gets. I could stay here all night, but the little voice manages to get a hearing too and I suspect I left at about 12, while they were still going strong.

What happens next? Read more on Day 10...